Andrew Selee analyzes the key aspects of the Mexico-U.S. relationship in this op-ed. The article argues that the meeting between the US and Mexican presidents later this week is likely to focus on economic issues, including border management and educational opportunities; however, security and migration will also be on the plate for their discussions.

A close reading of the senators’ framework gives the impression that the next round of strengthening border security might look a lot like previous rounds. That would be a mistake. Staffing and budgets for areas between the ports of entry have doubled since 2004 and are now at a level where even major increases would produce only marginal security gains.

Secretary of the Interior Miguel Angel Osorio Chong delivered a conference at the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute. His visit coincided with the launch of the Gang of Eight's immigration reform bill.

As the Gang of Eight prepares to announce their immigration reform bill, three knots remain and will have to be disentangled in order for the bill to succeed.

Part of "La Vista Desde DC" series: brief commentary by Mexico Institute experts featured on Animal Politico's website.

Informal collaborative methods are typical of the border region, in which citizens and local authorities must resolve daily problems by going beyond the official frameworks provided by their national governments.

In his latest expert take contribution, Director Duncan Wood discusses the Peña Nieto administration's bold proposal to open up Mexico's telecommunications to more competition.

Last Saturday’s vote by the PRI party to change its statutes to allow for the application of the value added tax (IVA) to food and medicine, and to allow for increased private participation in the oil sector, significantly improves the prospects for the reform process under Enrique Peña Nieto. This marks an important victory for the reformers within the party, and is a sign that the government now faces minimal internal party divisions that could hold back the reform process.

Part of "La Vista Desde DC" series: brief commentary by Mexico Institute experts featured on Animal Politico's website.

Yesterday’s PGR arrest of Elba Esther Gordillo on charges of embezzlement marks a bold step forward by the Pena Nieto administration to establish its authority and legitimacy in the eyes of the Mexican public, and to send a message to Mexico’s most powerful unions. The arrest comes after the successful passage of an education reform bill through Congress, earning the government plaudits from international observers, who saw it as a much-needed attack on the power of the teachers union, the SNTE, but receiving a skeptical response from many national critics who believed that the government would not follow through with implementation of the new laws.

Eric Olson and Christopher Wilson warn lawmakers against setting vague preconditions to “secure our border” before addressing immigration reform, which has sunk reform efforts in the past.

Is this finally the year that Congress reforms U.S. immigration policy and provides a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country? It would seem so, given the various encouraging statements from Republican and Democratic leaders over the past week. The policy calculations seem favorable, too, with years of net-zero migration from Mexico and the prospect of reduced migration pressures in the future. However, what remains highly unpredictable is the political calculus on immigration, with dynamics at the national and local level potentially at odds with each other.

Last week in conjunction with El Palenque, a well-known and widely consulted discussion forum on the Animal Politico website, the Mexico Institute posted a question to the Palenqueros concerning the major challenges and opportunities facing the United States-Mexico relationship. This is the first of what we hope will be a long-term collaboration with Animal Politico, which will also carry a Spanish language blog from the Mexico Institute, titled “La Vista desde DC.” Here we present a summary of the views and opinions presented in the forum.

This law is more than a year in the making, the product of a joint effort by academics, victims’ advocates, as well as victims themselves aligned with the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity. Its publication this week in the official government gazette marks a major win for the movement led by the poet Javier Sicilia, whose son Juan Francisco was killed in violence in March 2011.

For decades education in Mexico has been trapped by suspicious arrangements between the national agency for education and the main teachers union. It is commendable, that new President Peña Nieto aims to recover, from the Teacher’s Union (SNTE), the education policy decisions that the National Education Act confers, mainly, to the National Department of Education (SEP) and other local education authorities (articles 12 and 13).

Today Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto announced his government’s much anticipated security strategy to a nation exhausted and traumatized by six years of devastating violence and skyrocketing crime. In his statement he committed to heed the mandate of Mexican citizens in the last election calling for a country at peace and based on “respect and protection of human rights.”

During the era of the pre-democratic PRI in Mexico there existed a long history of national political pacts. Those pacts typically were between the PRI dominated executive branch and the two most influential actors, labor unions and business organizations. In the 1990s, at the highpoint of the democratic transition, the PRI for the first time in its history lost its ability to ensure a two-thirds vote in the legislative branch, preventing it from accomplishing constitutional changes.

In El país de uno: Reflexiones para entender y cambiar a México (My Country: Insights to Understand and Change Mexico), Denise Dresser concludes that Mexico has no one to blame but itself for its lackluster performance.

The Mexican government, supported by U.S. intelligence, has succeeded in arresting many of the top leaders of the trafficking organizations and making it harder for them to operate. Today these groups are probably far less cohesive than they once were, but that has also made them much more violent.

No doubt about it, 2010 was not a good year for Mexico. After setting new records for cartel-related violence, it’s hard to imagine 2011 could be much worse. While reversing this trend will be extremely difficult, here are three things the Mexican and U.S. governments can do to help make this a better year for Mexico and, by extension, the United States.

On July 29, the first pieces of Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070, take effect without the most controversial parts of the legislation. The sections that mandated that Arizona police enforce federal immigration laws have been blocked by a federal judge pending further review.1 If fully implemented, the law would direct police to ascertain the immigration status of people they stop or detain while enforcing other laws, make it a state crime for immigrants to not have papers documenting legal status in their possession, and otherwise increase state pressure on unauthorized (some would say all) immigrants.

On July 21st, the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), released a report assessing the Merida Initiative—a security cooperation program that guides U.S.-Mexico collaboration to confront organized crime and drug trafficking organizations.

In Mexico last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lamented the "cycle of violence and crime that has impacted communities on both sides of the border" and pledged continued U.S. engagement. With Washington's support, the Mexican government has been pursuing an aggressive multiyear campaign to confront criminal groups tied to the drug trade. To understand those efforts' chances of success, let's look beyond common misperceptions about Mexico's plight.

The new U.S. administration probably did not expect to focus as much attention on Mexico early in the term, but it is hard to remember a period of such intense activity between the two countries.

I would like to offer a bit of context on the current situation related to drug trafficking and organized crime in Mexico; the efforts that are going on between our two countries to address this; and specifically how the attorneys general might be able to play a leading role in these efforts, which have profound implications for our home communities as well as for the country next door.